Ningbo saves 95 million cubic meters of water in 2019, equivalent to 2.5 times the storage capacity of Dongqian Lake. [Photo/cnnb.com.cn]

Ningbo saved 95 million cubic meters of water in 2019, equivalent to 2.5 times the storage capacity of Dongqian Lake. 

Dongqian Lake is the largest natural freshwater lake in Zhejiang province, three times the size of West Lake in Hangzhou. 

This means that each person in the city saved about 30 liters of water per day in the past year, as the city has a permanent population of 8.524 million. 

Ningbo has long suffered from seasonal water shortages. The city has 940 cubic meters of water available per person per year, just 56 percent of the provincial average, according to official data. 

To solve this issue, local authorities have taken measures such as optimizing water resource allocation and recycling. 

Water for large industries has been separated from tap water in Ningbo. 

In 2019, Beilun Yandong Water Supplies Co Ltd sold more than 20 million cubic meters of recycled water, and Ningbo Iron and Steel Co Ltd saw a significant drop in its use of tap water after it started using recycled water. 

It now uses just one million cubic meters of tap water per year, accounting for 6.25 percent of its total water usage. 

In 2013, the city started promoting an upgrade of school toilets, and by the end of 2019, 1,183 slot-style toilets across the city had been renovated. 

A total of 267 residential communities in Ningbo currently meet provincial water-saving standards, accounting for 18 percent of all residential communities in the city, ranking second in Zhejiang.